Self Portrait

Yesterday was a bad day for me. The company I work for laid off 84 people and cut my pay. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones. Last night it was hard to get motivated. I decided to do a quick sketch to capture the way I felt, comfortably numb.

Portrait Drawing

It has been weeks now since I have made an entry here. I think about art all the time, but can’t find the time to do any of it. Having a full time job and being involved with other activities that take up my evenings I have little time left over for my artistic endeavors. Never the less I will forge ahead.

Yesterday I went to draw portraits at the Veteran’s home in Mt. Vernon. I try to get there every other week. I’ve been at it almost a year now and have done over fifty portraits. These are quick studies where I try to capture their likeness in about 30 minutes. Yesterday I did 4 of them. It was a tough crowd but still worth the trip.

I’m convinced that working from life is the best way to learn how to draw and paint. I was motivated yesterday to get back to work. Not having a model to draw, I worked from a photograph that I had taken of this gentleman in Mexico.

Got any grapes

Another still life, I started last Saturday and painted all but one night through the week. I hoped I would finish it working in the evening. This Saturday I painted all day because now I was painting in natural light. Using a medium of one part Stand Oil and Two parts Linseed Oil I painted over the entire painting making color and value adjustments.

What I thought would be a simple still life, turned out to be a challenge. My focus was to capture the green bottle and make it look translucent. The place mat in the background had been folded in a triangle and I liked the starburst pattern the folds made. The grapes well they were a lost cause. I wanted to add a complimentary color to work with the green, but I wished I had used real grapes.

A Quick Sketch

I did a quick sketch last night, because it has been too long since I have done any artwork. I’m posting it here not because I’m pleased with the results, but because I need the motivation to get busy. I bought this bust for the purpose of learning the Sight-Size approach to drawing. This was only a sketch. When I get the studio set up I will start that training.

Painting finished

Here it almost finished. I worked on it about 8 hours Saturday and 2 hours Sunday. I painted it by building up thin layers. If you click on it you can see a large view. You will see that I painted the saucer, spoon and tea bag a little looser than the tea kettle. I was going to try a technique called glazing on this painting, but I think I will give it a coat of varnish and call it finished.

Painting in Oil

I switched gears and got out the oil paints. I have not painted in oils now for some time. I have been doing some work in graphite, and before that I was painting in watercolors. Here is the setup and the rough block in stage. I use a brush to draw with burnt sienna adding some Dammar Varnish thinned with turpenoid. At this point I had about ½ hour painting time invested.

Orange study

First painting for 2009. Our house was in chaos most of the day with the taking down of the Christmas decorations. Not having a studio makes it hard to find a place to work. It was late when I set up this little still life, but I wanted to give the oil pastels another try.

This time I used a 6"x 8" Masonite panel that was primed with gesso. I used a #4 filbert with some odorless Turpenoid to do some blending. I liked working on the panel because it has a smoother surface.

Nativity scene

My wonderful wife got me some Oil Pastels for Christmas, so I had to jump right in and try them. I’m new to the oil type pastels so this is a little rough. I used 10" x 15" 124 LB rough watercolor paper. What I disliked about them is the same thing I liked. By that I mean they are big and balky, that makes getting fine detail at least for me impossible. On the other hand I want to loosen up and create some art that is not so tight. This scene was drawn from life using our Nativity Scene in natural light. They are glazed porcelain figures Joseph is about 10" tall. I did not do them Justice.

Three Wise men and a Baby

I painted this scene for our Children’s Choir presentation of "Three Wise Men and a Baby". It was painted on two 4 x 8 foot panels mounted on frames that are hinged together. We have two sets, one having panels on both sides now. This is one of three scenes I painted last week for the program. I have painted these same panels now seven times, and I look forward to priming and painting them again for VBS in 2009.

I’m starting a BLOG

I have launched this site so I can have a record of my work. I hope it will keep me motivated as I work towards becoming a better artist. My goal is to develop my own study program using some proven techniques. I will have more about this later.